Installation of various payment media readers in vending equipment is limited by the available front panel space and internal clearances. The vending machine industry provides various cutouts in a vending machine's front panel for various types of currency acceptors or payment card (e.g., credit card, debit card, etc.) acceptors. Consequently, there is typically only enough space to accommodate a bill acceptor or an insertion type card reader. Specifically, the physical form and dimensions of a conventional bill acceptor prevents the installation of an insertion type card reader since the bill acceptor requires internal clearances for the currency stacking mechanism. Thus, a vending machine operator is usually required to choose between a currency acceptor and an insertion type card reader. However, since space is more often limited by internal clearances as opposed to the space on the vending machine's front panel, implementation of alternative payment mechanisms and readers may be possible.
One type of reader that it may be desirable to implement on a vending machine is a radio frequency (RF) proximity reader for reading contactless cards brought in proximity to the reader. It may also be desirable to allow users to use both contactless cards and conventional magnetic stripe cards to purchase goods from vending machines. However, current insertion-type card readers do not read contactless RF cards and their internal circuitry and footprint on the front panel of a vending machine limits the ability to add RF card readers.
Accordingly, there exists a need for providing the capability to read magnetic and contactless RF cards in a vending machine.